Olivia Wilde: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros new music video

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are back with a new music video for “No Love Like Yours,” off their forthcoming album, PersonA. Directed by actress Olivia Wilde and shot entirely on iPhones, the clip shows frontman Alex Ebert experiencing his own funeral in New Orleans as it happens.

“When I think of New Orleans, I think of a place that represents resurrection,” Wilde tells EW. “The way they mourn the dead is in a celebratory way and the idea is that their spirit is dancing with you. [In the video] Alex doesn’t realize it’s his own funeral. It’s not a sad farewell to this persona. It’s the way we should celebrate life. I thought it would be an appropriate way to celebrate what Edward Sharpe represents.”

Wilde has been a longtime fan of the band and says she had always wanted to direct a music video for them. “I love how they approach everything with an authentic, experimental approach; everything they make and do is done with sincerity and a real kind of enthusiasm for the art form.”

She says when she heard “No Love Like Yours,” the band’s manager floated the idea of directing a video for the track and eventually pitched the group on the idea of viewing your own funeral. “In the artwork for the song, I put Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and then I crossed out the Edward Sharpe bit,” Ebert says. “That shows moving on from any exterior and allowing the next iteration of yourself to speak, so when she called and said I’ve got this idea — you’d be at your own funeral — I was like that’s perfect.”

The shoot was Wilde’s first since she directed a 2011 short film. “I learned that directing is really assembling really talented people and giving them space to create and really do their jobs,” she says. Ebert says the same was true of collaborating with the actress: “It was a bit magical to see that loose grip guiding things sort of gently.”

See Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ music video for “No Love Like Yours.”.

Reporting by C. Molly Smith.